It’s time to revisit the blogroll as part of our series introducing those other arts/philanthropy/music-related sites on the web. For this edition, I’ll be writing about a series of blogs I discovered during summer of last year, while I was in the midst of my internship for the Hewlett Foundation and becoming much more interested in broader issues concerning arts policy.
Arts Issues by Alex Aldrich
Alex Aldrich is executive director of the Vermont Arts Council and a Yale SOM grad. His posts give an insider’s perspective on the day-to-day realities of leading a state arts organization, and are laced with pointed commentary on issues of the moment.API News and Community Arts Network blog
Community Arts Network is a program of an organization called Art in the Public Interest (API). API News is primarily a source for full-length essays from professionals in the community arts, uh, community. The CAN blog, on the other hand, tends to feature shorter riffs on stuff going on elsewhere on the web. Both resources are very helpful for those interested in the intersection between the arts and their communities.Barry’s Arts Blog and Update
Barry Hessenius is the former director of the California Arts Council, back in the good old days when it had money. He’s now a consultant and has this blog hosted by the Western States Arts Federation. It started out as a monthly newsletter, and though Barry posts a bit more often these days, the style is definitely more op-ed than open thread. Barry has an extensive familiarity with the pantheon of iconic leaders in arts management which sometimes finds its way into his posts in interesting ways, such as his ranking of the 25 most powerful people in the field or his nominations for NEA Chair.Future Leaders in Philanthropy
What could be better than young people in philanthropy? A cause that one would think would be close to my heart. Except….this site commits an obfuscation of which many others are also guilty, conflating philanthropy (in the sense of giving out money) with fundraising (in the sense of seeking money). That wouldn’t be so bad except that I do believe that the actual field of philanthropy could definitely use more input from young voices, whereas fundraising already has plenty of them. That said, I appreciate their model, especially the idea of hosting networking events. And one of the first blog posts of theirs I saw was an interview with a fellow Yale Glee Club and SOM alum, Shana Katz Ross. Yeah small world!Life’s a Pitch
Fresh off coordinating the Program Notes mega-blog for the National Peforming Arts Convention, classical music publicist Amanda Ameer landed her own venting space at ArtsJournal called Life’s a Pitch. Ameer, who represented big name artists for a few years at IMG before branching out on her own, is entertaining as all hell and brims over with creative ideas for marketing her stars and yours. One of the best new blogs of 2008.The Rambler
I had been aware of Tim Rutherford-Johnson’s musicology blog for a few years, but only started subscribing last summer. Much of his content takes the form of CD and concert reviews and the like, but he also occasionally reports on cultural developments, especially across the pond in Europe (he is based in England).
Related posts:
- Thoughts on Effective Philanthropy: Part I – The Nature of the Arts and their Impact
- Thoughts on Effective Philanthropy: Part III – (Dis-)Economies of Scale in the Arts
- Thoughts on Effective Philanthropy: Part II – Philanthropy and Experimentation
- Thoughts on Effective Philanthropy: Part IV – Funding Activity, Not Individuals
2 Comments
There’s also another organization called EPiP (Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy) – but I wonder how effective any of these groups are (are they officially recognized by those with power in the philanthropic community? how many emerging practitioners want to stay in philanthropy for the long-term?).
Thanks, Tony. I am aware of EPiP, and they even helped support the first edition of the Yale SOM Philanthropy Conference (which I co-chaired this year), but I must confess I don’t have extensive familiarity with them. To address your questions, I definitely believe that there are practitioners who want to stay in the field long-term — after all, many of the people who are there now have been doing it for quite a while. But whether or not people want to stay long-term is sort of irrelevant, in my opinion; the important thing is that young people have something to offer philanthropy and they’re (for the most part) not currently getting a chance to offer it.
Whether independent “meta-philanthropy” groups such as EPiP or onPhilanthropy are “recognized by those with power in the philanthropic community” is a harder question to answer. I think it depends a lot on the organizations and specific people in question. An organization like Center for Effective Philanthropy is taken quite seriously by foundations, for example.
PS – I enjoyed reading your blog! Keep up the good work.